Rate this Stand Up Comedian out of 5: Bill Hicks?

Bill Hicks was a stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist and musician. His material, encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy, was controversial, and often steeped in dark comedy.

At the age of 16, while still in high school, he began performing at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas. During the 1980s, he toured the United States extensively and made a number of high-profile television appearances; but it was in the UK that he amassed a significant fan base, filling large venues during his 1991 tour. He also achieved a modicum of recognition as a guitarist and songwriter.

Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 32. In subsequent years his work gained a significant measure of acclaim in creative circles—particularly after a series of posthumous album releases—and he developed a substantial cult following.

What Guys Said 10

Right after 9/11, Bill Maher was on his old ABC show, "Politically Incorrect," and he made a very controversial comment about everyone calling the hijackers "cowards" for what they did. His comment was that hijacking a plane and crashing it into a building takes tremendous courage, and that if anyone was a coward, it was Americans for lobbing cruise missiles at our enemies from 2,000 miles away. It was so controversial his show was cancelled and he had to stay off the TV for a while before getting a new show on HBO.

Bill Maher plagiarized that line from one of Bill Hicks' last performances recorded almost ten years earlier.

Bill Hicks is one of the funniest comedians ever, but he never became famous, and as a result of his relative obscurity, most of his material has been plagiarized by less funny and more famous comedians such as Denis Leary, who released an album called, "No Cure For Cancer" which was roughly comprised of 80% recycled Bill Hicks jokes, in fact, much of it was word for word.

Bill Hicks died soon thereafter and Denis Leary went on to have a very successful career both as a comedian and in Hollywood.

Nothing worse than a ripe off, there is a tool song on enima, that has a bill hicks sample. I don't think he could ever have been famous, because he was too controversial. But I have loved him for over twenty years.

@monkeynutts He could have been the most famous comedian of all time if he was born 20 years later, that's the sad thing. I remember even Carlin praised him and said he was inspired to write more political jokes after seeing Bill's act.

We have something called tall poppy syndrome in Australia, it's a moral duty to put people in their place if they go wayward, and generally it would be an older women who would do it. I can understand patriotism, because I think I'm one in the true sense of the word. I would be interested to know more about your faith and how you interpret the world around you through it. The world was so much better prior to 9/11, the day was so significant that I know where I was when I read about it in a news paper, I was in a train carriage and I told absolute strangers that WW3 has just started, I spend a lot of time just looking at people and wondering how the world can be so fucked up. Hick knew this too. And he would use comedy to tell everyone about it.

I'm a Christian and anybody else that's a good Christian I back them 100% we are all Brothers and Sisters through Christ. I don't go by the different countrys doesn't matter where you're from as long as your a good Christian. If you are a faithful Christian you have my backing 100% I don't like people that are hypocrites and Bash others and their politics through Comedy